Fuel scarcity and hike in petrol price have left many students across the country frustrated and dismayed. It is a battle for survival amid the inclement economic situation. PRECIOUS ADESHINA and HUSSEIN ADOTO (UNILORIN) report.
Across various universities, it is tale of woes from students with the outrageous price of petrol having a great effect on fares.
From the University of Illorin to University of Benin to University of Lagos, it is the same story of hardship and frustration.
From missing classes to having to spend more on transport and essential commodities, students are having a hard time with the ongoing fuel scarcity.
The country has been facing a nationwide scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise called petrol, as marketers and fuel stations complain of inadequate supply by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
Motorists and other fuel users spend hours on long queues at the few filling stations where fuel is available, and sold above the official pump price.
In some filling stations in Ilorin, fuel is sold between N300 and N400 per litre, while it as high as N500 per litre in the so-called black market.
These factors have combined to make life harder for students especially at the University of Ilorin. Some students who spoke with Campus Life told of the hardship of adjusting to the reality of fuel scarcity as they pursue their studies on campus.
A 500-Level Medical student, who wished to remain anonymous, said the fuel scarcity has made life unbearable for him off-campus.
“Students need a certain level of comfort to study well, and fuel scarcity is taking that away. I stay in an area with poor power supply, so we depend on a generator to charge and pump water. Without it (fuel), we can’t charge and read. The fuel has caused an increase in transport fare to school,” he said.
For Onimisi Sunday, a second-year pharmacy student, fuel scarcity complicates his school life.
“The scarcity of fuel came at probably the worst time to be a student and even more worse if you are a UNILORITE. The cost of transportation and commodities have been on the rise for some time, and the sudden scarcity of fuel had made it even worse,” he said.
He said he had to leave early to catch a bus to school on time.
He said: “Before, if I wake up late, then I’ll have to go queue for like 30 minutes before I could get korope (small buses), but now I’ll have to queue up for several hours, which is very tiring and discouraging. There was even a day that I had to give up on coming to school.”
Fare to and from the campus had also doubled, he said, unlike before when he spent N300 on transportation.
Students like Onimisi, who stay off campus, are particularly vulnerable to the impact of the fuel scarcity, as they had to contend with poor power supply in communities outside the campus, and the fare challenges.
Uchegbu Emmanuel, a 400-Level student, who stays off-campus, said the fuel scarcity had been “tortuous.”
He said: “I stay off campus. Due to the poor power supply in recent times, I have been forced to rely on my generating set to charge my gadgets.
“The scarcity has made this even more difficult. I have to wait on long queues for hours to get petrol at exorbitant prices. It’s so bad that it costs three times the price to fill my tank. It’s either I do this (queue at fuel stations) or buy from the black market vendors at prices that range from about N800 to N1000 per litre.”
Emmanuel bemoaned the “crazy fares” he has had to pay since the scarcity started.
“Life is so much harder, especially for us students, who are dependent on allowances and tight budgets. How am I to survive when I’m spending three times more than I should on petrol for power alone?” he said.
The fuel scarcity has also exacerbated the transportation crisis in UNILORIN, forcing long queues on students seeking to enter or leave the campus.
Omobolanle Adeoti, a 200-Level student in the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences (CIS) , said she was losing interest in going to classes due to the difficulties faced before getting to school.
“I have 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. class. I have to wake up between 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. to meet up with lectures.”
According to her, transporters on campus are using the scarcity to exploit students who have no choice.
“For instance, last week I had to spend N600 on fare to school, instead of N200 or the usual N150. This is uncalled for. We all know that fuel is scarce, but that doesn’t require them to overcharge the students. After all, we are not the government or NNPCL that refused to make the petrol go round.”
Urging the student union to make enough buses available to students, Omobolanle noted that students have to force themselves to come to school despite the challenges they face, only to finish the classes and spend about three hours on queues before they could get back home.
Students that live on campus are not spared by fuel scarcity too.
For Favour Eze, a physiotherapy student, the fuel scarcity has a “very huge impact” on her finances.
“The money that used to last for a week barely lasts three days. I used to pay N50 from Old College to New College; to and fro is N100. Now it’s N200. To and from Permanent Site is N400. How much does a student have that they’d have to spend N400 daily to go for classes?” she said.
She lamented that the scarcity is affecting her studies and well-being, such that “it makes me want to skip classes just to save the extra transport fare.”
Favour added that living on campus has made things easier for her, even though she still has to transport herself to classes.
“I don’t spend much (like those living off campus), but it is much more than I used to spend,” she said.
Beyond having to pay more, the physiotherapy student added that the fuel scarcity also undermined their well-being in the hostel.
“We used to have a generator here (the hostel) that the management put on whenever there’s a power outage, but now the generator is off. I don’t even know if I’d get water tonight,”she lamented.
She called the university management to moderate fare and prices of commodities on campus.
A 200-Level student , who preferred anonymity, said although her on-campus hostel is “known to always face water scarcity due to power supply,” the ongoing fuel scarcity adds a new dimension that makes living in the school hostel “draining.”
“This scarcity has affected most students’ quality of living in the sense that, a student having a 8 am to 6 pm class will leave the hostel as early as possible, eating little or no food before leaving, only to return in the evening to a long queue of buckets waiting to get filled and a room filled with darkness. This will definitely destabilise the student,” she said.
She implored the “committee in charge of the Student Affairs to provide (a) more suitable solution to this scarcity, especially that of water, even if it’s just for them to dig a well for the hostel”.
“The prices of commodities are not even joking,” Onimisi continued, “It is as though it’s increasing every day.”
A keke rider, Muhammed Gazali, said the fuel scarcity forced him to increase his fares, adding that the increase was not as high as students claimed.
He said he used to buy fuel at N180 per litre, but now, he buys it for N350, N360, and in some places, N400. This price increase affected his fares too.
“When they sold fuel N180 per litre, fare on PS (Permanent Site)-New College route was N70, but now it’s N100. Old College to PS used to be N150, now it’s N200,” he said.
He added that they don’t have problems with students.
“Some of them understand us. You know we are on campus,” he said, “we can’t fix any price like that.”
Sanni Abeeb, a 400-Level Engineering student, said: “The fact that we have to go through these struggles everyday without having a definitive assurance of when it’s going to end is painful.”
Kingsley Nwosu, a 300-Level student of English said: “The issue of fuel scarcity remains troubling. But the only difference between fuel scarcity now and then is that it has affected every individual. Both the working class and hustlers. It has affected me psychologically and academically.
“To be present in school, you need to be marked for attendance and to attend classes, especially 8:00am classes, you need to arrive school very early. All these have psychological effects o students. I wake up early by 5:00am to get to school by 8:00am and still would come late to class.
” There should also be an agreement between the transporters and the Students Union president for things to get better.”
Mary Jane, a Linguistics student, said: “The fuel scarcity is causing depression.
“On a fate day, I was trying to go out of school to get some things done. On getting to the school Motor Park, I was surprised as to how crowded it was. There’s actually an unbelievably long queue. I was trying to find my way to a safe spot as there was pushing and shoving here and there when a guy accidentally stepped on me. He was on a shoe and that made it so painful.
“On getting to the safe spot, the next thing that came to my mind was to place an order for a ride on Bolt which I did. I was seated for several minutes before the rider arrived. The price on the app was N1,000 but the rider said he was going to collect N3,000 which I couldn’t agree. I had to place a new order. On the arrival of the new driver, he did the same but his increment was bearable.”
Wunmi Odunola, a student at the Faculty of Social Science, said: “I wake up every morning by 5:30, then go to the bus stop by 6:00am for a class I have by 8am. If, eventually, I get into school before the set time, I wouldn’t be bothered. But, instead, I get to school by 9 am at times. I have to go back home, because eventually, I’m either late for my class and the lecturer would refuse to let me in or I miss my class totally.
“The few buses left have hiked their fares and even placed so many rules and regulations on their vehicles, private car owners extort students by making them pay four or five times the regular fare, the cheapest Bolt in Ilorin from Okeodo close to the school gate to the park inside the school is between N1900 to N2500.
“I really wish the school can do something urgently. This is making schooling very tiring and discouraging.
Management steps in
UNILORIN Vice Chancellor Prof. Wahab Egbewole (SAN) said the university had assigned 500 user accounts of 300-capacity zoom licences to its faculties and departments for the commencement of virtual classes.
This followed the transportation problems facing the students and workers of the university. The measure is to ameliorate the effect of situation.
